Today, Google's Director of Product Management, Android Pay, Pali Bhat, took to the official Android blog to announce the official roll out of Android Pay across more than a million locations in the United States. The payment solution allows you to use your Android smartphone to make payments at vendors that accept tap and pay solutions.
Coin, the electronic card that aimed at solving all your credit/debit/loyalty card woes, has just received a major hardware update in the form of the second generation of the product, aptly named Coin 2.0. Among a variety of enhancements, Coin 2.0 adds support for NFC-based payments, making it all that better for daily use.
A part of iOS 7 that has received next to no discussion but has the potential to be the biggest addition to the iOS feature set, iBeacon is Apple's attempt at taking location aware apps to the next level and, if the latest tests shown by Major League Baseball are anything to go by, then they might just be onto something.
If you use your Android smartphone or tablet for even half the purposes that an average geek would put it to, chances are strong that you have pretty sensitive data stored in there that you’d definitely not want to get in the wrong hands. Truth be told, today’s smartphones are no long mere communication devices; they’re photo albums with all the pictures of our loved ones, they’re our personal information managers, holding all our contact lists, appointments, schedules etc., then these devices are also our internet hubs, storing all content ready for access by anyone who can get into your device. And these examples constitute only the tip of the iceberg; the rabbit hole goes far deeper.
Samsung may have been shrouded in a little bit of controversy over the last few weeks and had their public reputation somewhat tarnished, but that doesn't detract from the fact that they produce some fantastic and popular devices, that are in some cases, ahead of the competition in the industry. I am willing to go out on a limb and suggest that their legal wrangling's with Apple are far from over, with more to come surrounding Apple's request to have specific devices banned in the United States, but until that day in court comes upon us, there is some good news on the horizon for Samsung Galaxy S III owners.
Anand Shimpi has been rounding up the rumors with regards to the next iPhone, and yesterday concluded the likelihood of Apple implementing NFC into its smartphone was decidedly slim. Now, Jim Dalrymple has corroborated that notion, with the famous Cupertino insider chipping in with his familiar "yep" quip.
According to one analyst, a mobile payment service - likely incorporating NFC technology - is in the offing from Apple, and will be implemented into both the iPad and iPhone in the not-so-distant future.
The iPhone 4S is now three months old, which means the inevitable barrage of rumors and speculation will be hitting our screens in the coming weeks and months regarding future devices from Apple, especially the iPhone 5 and iPad 3. The rumor train shouldn't come as a surprise, considering it happens with every product release, but as the Apple products gain more popularity around the world, the focus on the rumors intensifies.
I go to Starbucks pretty often, I’m a big fan of their iPhone app that allows me to pay for my coffee by having the barista scan a code on my screen. The process is quick and easy and I have fun earning stars and checking the balance of all my gift cards. By next year, a scan-less method will be more popular and available with more merchants and on more phones.
If you’ve used an Android-powered Nexus S for an extended period of time, you should probably be aware of its outstanding support for NFC payments, allowing users to simply tap their phones on modern credit card terminals in order to purchase goods. It now turns out that you can embed NFC chips into any iPhone 4 rather easily, as long as your bank provides small credit cards with NFC chips.